Whilst waiting for my service, I spotted a nice car in the showroom. “Is that electric?” I asked the receptionist. “Oh, I don’t know” she replied. Now, you’d think that sitting there all day at her desk she’d spend a little time getting to know the cars right in front of her, but alas not… “Can you find out for me? I persisted.

With what I swear was a slight eye roll, she shouts across the room “Mike, is that electric?” “No” Mike replies. The receptionist returns to her tap-tapping on her computer and Mike gets back to his loitering on the other side of the room Now, I may be old fashioned, but wouldn’t you think that if a customer shows an interest in their product the salesman might at least come over to see if he can help? Or direct me to a car that is electric?

I was a bit miffed by this point, so I headed next door to the adjacent dealership in the hopes of finding better customer service and perhaps a car there. But I was sorely disappointed. I’ve been considering a nice smart electric vehicle for a while, but when I asked for a test drive I was declined.

You see, the manager had taken that car home with him and then gone on holiday. So not only did they not have it today, but it would also be a week before I could even lay eyes on it. Why would they leave a highly sought after and expensive car that will take 12 months to be ready for collection if I buy, sitting on the manager’s driveway? Irritated and disappointed I returned to the service department to wait for my car.

I think covid has a lot to answer for. The rules and restrictions meant that customer service became secondary. But it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, customer service is everything. If the experience of buying from you is frustrating, painful or complicated people won’t want to do business with you.

At Millennium, customer service is at the heart of everything we do. We go above and beyond to serve our customers and make moving your goods easy and hassle-free. What about you? Do you deliberately remove friction from your buying process? How do you wow your customers? I’d love to hear your ideas…